


When You're Not Listening

by aretia



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Deaf Character, F/M, Love Confessions, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 10:25:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17847662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Three times Gren said "I love you" to Amaya when he thought she wasn't looking and wouldn't be able to read his lips. Two times she noticed.





	When You're Not Listening

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from the song "Distance" by Christina Perri.
> 
> "Say 'I love you' when you're not listening."
> 
> ~
> 
> This fic was translated into Russian by Whyblie, [here!](https://ficbook.net/readfic/8470027)

She had to make it. She had to survive. Amaya was too strong to be taken down by something like this. She was going to recover, and everything was going to be fine. It had to be.

She and Gren had been on a dangerous reconnaissance mission with several other members of their army when she went off on her own, and came back severely injured, having barely survived an attack by a vicious magical animal. Gren had found her in the woods, collapsed against a tree stump just short of the clearing where they had made camp. He called off the mission, and led the charge to bring her home and get her medical attention as quickly as possible. Once the doctor had patched up her wounds, she had said that Amaya was in stable condition, and just needed time to rest and heal. But Gren was still worried about her.

She had been through worse. She had told him plenty of times the glorious tale of how she had gotten the scar on her cheek in a battle with a magma titan. Gren hadn’t known her yet back then, but he still wished that he had been there to protect her.

Amaya had lost her sister in that battle, and her parents years before that. So Gren was the only one waiting at her bedside that night.

“Amaya,” Gren said. He knew that she wouldn’t be able to hear him even if she were awake, but he just wanted his voice to fill the eerily empty space of the hospital room. “I know you’re strong and you’re going to make it through this. I just really need you to be okay. I love you.”

The weight of those words settled on his shoulders as they hung in the air, echoing in his mind. He had never admitted it before, even to himself. But after reflecting on it for a minute, he realized that yes, it was true, he was deeply in love with Amaya. He didn’t know what to do with that revelation. 

Amaya, of course, couldn’t hear him. She was asleep, so she couldn’t read his lips. For now, he saw that as a blessing, because he wasn’t ready to confront what it meant for himself. He would sort out his emotions once Amaya woke up. Right now, his only priority was her recovery.

~

Over the next several months, after Amaya made a full recovery, Gren fell into a habit of saying “I love you” out loud when she couldn’t read his lips. He had said it hundreds of times behind her back, or to her closed door when she retreated to her bedroom after they had stayed up late talking. There were times when they were camping out on a mission, and Gren had said it to her while she was asleep. He didn’t say it when other soldiers were around, because they would make fun of him or even tell her the secret, but it slipped out often when they were alone. 

Even though he said it so often that it was like a reflex, he always made sure that her eyes weren’t on him when he said it. Saying it out loud let him release his emotions, but he wasn’t ready for the consequences of her finding out that he felt that way about her. It wouldn’t be appropriate for their relationship, with him being her interpreter and her subordinate. Besides, Gren hardly felt like he deserved her. She was so brave, so strong, and he was so weak and unremarkable compared to her, that he felt like an orange tabby house-cat trying to flirt with a lioness.

The most likely consequence would be rejection, and that alone wouldn’t be so bad. Sometimes he thought that he might as well confess and get it over with, so that he could get on with putting the pieces of his shattered heart back together. But he worried that admitting his feelings would destroy their friendship, and she would turn cold and professional around him, until finally the awkwardness became too much to bear and she sought out a new interpreter.

In all the years he’d known her, Amaya had never shown any romantic interest in anyone. It wouldn’t do to lose himself in empty hope that his feelings would be reciprocated. That would only make it hurt more when his hopes were crushed.

He shook himself out of his spiral of self-deprecating thought and glanced over at Amaya. She walked beside him as they strolled through the streets of the quiet town on their way to the market. Right now, her gaze seemed to be focused on a nest of birds in a tree. Her beauty was breathtaking as always, the brisk breeze lightly whipping the strands of her short hair over her forehead. She reached up and brushed her hair behind her ear with her finger, and Gren couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

“I love you,” he said, without thinking about it.

Amaya’s head instantly turned to look at Gren. “ _What did you say?_ ” she asked in sign language.

Gren gulped. “ _Nothing_ ,” he signed back.

Amaya’s eyebrows lowered and she leveled him with a glare of disbelief. “ _It’s not nothing. I saw your lips move out of the corner of my eye. What did you say?_ ” she pressed on. “ _It looked like you said_ …”

“I said I… love food,” Gren said, with a sheepish grin. This time, he said it out loud, hoping that the movement of his lips would look similar enough to convince her that that was really what he said. But she was too smart to fall for that, and he was only digging himself a deeper hole.

“ _Come on, Gren. We both know that’s not what you said_ ,” she replied.

Gren sighed. He had to slip up when he was unprepared for this conversation. But there was no going back now. “ _Fine. You caught me. What I said was… I love you._ ”

She mirrored him, signing back, “ _I love you too_.”

Gren, who had already lowered his head and braced himself for the inevitable rejection, looked up in surprise, his eyes widening like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “ _What?_ ”

“ _I love you too_ ,” Amaya repeated, her smile warm and knowing. “ _I know you’ve been saying it when you thought I wasn’t looking. I was a little disappointed that you didn’t feel comfortable saying it to me, but I wanted to give you time until you were ready to say it. But I waited for so long that I thought for sure I’d be the one saying it for the first time._ ”

Gren’s cheeks blazed with a burning blush. He was embarrassed, but also relieved to find out that Amaya had known all along. He had built it up into a big secret that got harder and harder to share the longer he kept it hidden. More importantly, it turned out that his feelings were reciprocated, which was beyond his wildest dreams. He had convinced himself that he was content with unrequited admiration, as long as he got to stay by her side.

Gren’s head had apparently drooped again, and he didn’t realize it until Amaya’s fingers cupped his chin and tilted his head up to look her in the eyes, and watch her continue to sign. “ _I can tell that you’re doubting yourself. Trust me. I love you, and I have felt this way about you for a long time. You are strong, and you make me happy, and I can’t imagine life with anyone else._ ” Then, her arms dropped to her sides, as she had run out of words. She just wrapped her arms around Gren’s waist and pulled him close.

Amaya had such a larger-than-life personality that Gren often forgot that she was shorter than him. This was one of those rare moments when he was reminded of that fact. Standing chest-to-chest with her, his nose was about at the level of her forehead. She had to tilt her head up ever so slightly to bring her lips closer to his.

Gren was so nervous that he couldn’t move. He couldn’t stop staring at her lips, those lips that didn’t have to say a word to bring him to his knees. Her smile could make him dizzy, and the way her lips were just slightly parted now made him feel like his heart was about to leap out of his chest. Even though he’d dreamt of kissing her many times, being this close for real was too much.

She removed one of her hands from his back, and signed to him, “ _You’re thinking too hard._ ” Then, she placed that hand behind his head, and pulled him down to close the small space between their lips. A surge of euphoria flooded into him when her lips touched his, and he felt her smile against his lips before she deepened the kiss. He felt so lucky that he had her to push past his shyness, because this was the happiest he had ever felt.

~

Gren tucked himself in under the covers and snuggled close to Amaya in her bed— _their_ bed. The general’s suite was an upgrade from the modest quarters Gren had lived in as an interpreter. But he didn’t care about that as much as the fact that he could fall asleep with Amaya in his arms every night.

They kept the blinds open at night, so that the moon would shed enough light into the room in case they needed to communicate through sign language in the dark, but it had the added benefit of letting Gren stay up and admire Amaya in her sleep. Her pale face shone in the moonlight and she looked ethereal, breathing in a deep and even rhythm. They lay face to face, loosely wrapped in each other’s arms. Gren was constantly in awe of her, and the wave of love and affection that swelled up in his chest overwhelmed him.

Saying it was the easiest thing in the world.

“I love you.”

Amaya’s eyes fluttered open, and her shining brown eyes looked back at him. “ _I thought I told you to stop doing that_ ,” she signed.

“ _Doing what? What did I do?_ ” Gren signed back, nervous that she was upset with him even though she was smiling.

“ _Saying ‘I love you’ when I’m not looking_ ,” Amaya replied.

“ _Sorry. How did you know? Your eyes were closed,_ ” said Gren.

“ _This time, I felt your breath on my face,_ ” she said. “ _At least, I assume that’s what you said. Say it again._ ”

Amaya watched expectantly as Gren signed the motion for “ _I love you_ ,” slow and deliberate and full of passion.

She smiled. Then, she signed back, “ _I love you too, cutie._ ” 

Amaya’s nickname for Gren in sign language was a sign that meant something along the lines of “cutie.” She didn’t use it around the other soldiers, since many of them understood sign language and would notice, but when they were in private, it had all but replaced spelling out Gren’s name. It made his ears heat up with a blush every time he saw it.

Amaya let a breath out of her nose in a silent laugh. She leaned close to Gren, and surprised him with a peck on the tip of his nose. Then, she pulled him in for a real kiss on the lips, her arms holding him tight. When she pulled away from the kiss, she looked up at him, smiling. “ _Goodnight_ ,” she signed.

“Goodnight,” Gren whispered, out loud. His hands were occupied as he had his arms wrapped around her. Amaya closed her eyes again, and then she tucked her head underneath Gren’s chin. Gren reached up to stroke her hair, and felt the vibration of her light snoring against his chest in minutes. 

Gren had never thought that he would be this lucky. If he had been honest about his feelings sooner, maybe he could have been enjoying this for longer, but he didn’t concern himself with what-ifs anymore. The months that he had spent with Amaya, he hoped, would be the beginning of a lifetime of happiness. It was with these pleasant thoughts in his head that he drifted off to sleep.


End file.
